A two-year long study investigated the influence of being in a mainstreamed classroom on nonhandicapped children's abilities to communicate with the handicapped. The study involved three groups of students: (1) 66 nonhandicapped, nonintegrated (those in classes without handicapped children); (2) 24 nonhandicapped, integrated; and (3) 55 handicapped only. To measure the ability of a child to adapt communication to a specific listener, each subject was shown a series of eight drawings illustrating handicapped and nonhandicapped children doing different things and asked what he or she would say to communicate a certain intention to the child in the picture. The subjects' responses were coded for their empathic adaptation to each handicap. The subjects were tested at the end of the first year of a mainstreaming program and again at the end of the second year of the program. The results indicated that both nonhandicapped and handicapped children had difficulty communicating with their handicapped peers. Being in a mainstreamed class had no impact on the communication skills of the nonhandicapped children, and no differences were found between children studied at the conclusion of the first or second years of the mainstreaming program. (FL)

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